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Why won't DIY CO2 work with Atomic diffusers?

2K views 12 replies 11 participants last post by  Yankee 
#1 ·
I've heard that DIY CO2 cannot produce the 30PSI or so pressure required to drive Atomic-style diffusers.

Yet I've also heard that if you attempt to seal off a DIY bottle to save CO2 overnight, it or the tubing will blow... which would normally require more than 30PSI.

And over here is a thread with one person who says yeast can rupture beer bottles rated for 50PSI, and another says it can generate up to 120PSI before the pressure even starts to slow down yeast production.

So, what's the real story?
 
#3 ·
Yeah it's prob not overly dangerous but the bottle would prob blow up before one bubble ever came out of the diffuser, which would be a gigantic mess of yeast and sugar water lol. That or a leak would spring from somewhere. My atomic diffuser wouldn't start working until I set my regulators low pressure gauge to between 35 and 40
 
#4 ·
I have two plastic bottles that I'm using as bubble counters on preasurized systems. One is a small flimsy apple juice bottle and the other is a small gatorade bottle. They are both seeing over 30 psi and holding just fine. When I go to squeeze the bottles at 30 psi, it feels firm but not as firm as say a brand new un-opened bottle of coke after shaking the hell out of it.
 
#6 ·
sounds like something i would want to try. has anyone actually tried it? plastic bottles can hold more pressure than most people give them credit for, and yeast can certainly build up enough pressure to blow a bottle up...

again, has anyone actually tried it? if not, i might.
 
#9 ·
So... Sounds like the issue isn't that it won't work. Just that there's a small chance of something going wrong, which is better off avoided.

This sound about right?

I didn't ask because I intend to try it, just out of curiosity since the facts didn't seem to match the claim. I haven't even used glass diffusers with DIY, better to avoid any pressurization at all. But recently I had a brand new metal check valve get stuck closed after just a few days, causing the pressure to build to the point where the DIY juice bottle looked like a balloon. Given the shape and feel of it, I think it was probably at more than 30PSI, which got me wondering about stuff like this.
 
#10 ·
So... Sounds like the issue isn't that it won't work. Just that there's a small chance of something going wrong, which is better off avoided.
They are probably all right. Trouble with diy co2 is that you can't continuously produce that much pressure.. If you shut off the output you might, but as soon as you open it you're back to low pressure.
I think this is the real answer. You need sustained pressure, not just a quick shot of it. DIY will def get the pressure you need when allowed to build up, but as soon as its released you're back to way to low of a working pressure to use an atomic diffusor....
 
#11 ·
I have had issues with glass diffusers that don't need the pressure that an Atomic diffuser needs, and have verified that with my pressurized setup. It either tanks a few days for any CO2 to come out, or it just doesn't build enough pressure to ever come out. I have had both happen.

I image you could tweak the recipe to work but it would likely take a long time to build the pressure so it would render it very pointless. DIY CO2's main drawback is inconsistency so using something like an Atomic diffuser seems like it would just make it exponentially more inconsistent. Usually you can add more bottles to make it more consistant, rotating each out. I would guess that this would be detrimental for an Atomic diffuser with DIY CO2 because it just means the initial pressure needs to be built up more often from releasing the pressure when swapping tanks out.
 
#12 ·
If only you could have a buffer "tank" which has a regulating valve on the outlet so that it smooths out the fluctuations in pressure, you could keep swapping out the soda bottles which supply it and always have pressure in the tank but then it's getting too complicated for DIY co2 lol
 
#13 ·
Get two yeast reactors and connect them to a T valve and then to a needle valve or ball valve so you can adjust the pressure however you would like and keep it relatively stable as long as the bottles are pushing out decent amounts of CO2. 2 bottles regulated by a ball valve is enough to push through a ceramic disc while still maintaining control.
 
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